The SDG Book Club helps children learn about the Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Do you know where your food and water come from? How about where the waste goes once you’re done eating? Do you know how much energy you use when you leave the lights on in your room for the whole day?
We rely on many natural resources in order to survive. As our economy and society progress, the natural resources that we depend on begin to run out. If the world population reaches 9.6 billion by 2050, we would need three planets worth of resources to keep the same lifestyle we have today.
Did you know that one-third of all the food in the world is wasted or lost? Or that households consume 29% of global energy and contribute to 21% of CO2 emissions? If we don’t change our production and consumption habits, we will cause irreversible damage to our environment.
Luckily, small steps can go a long way. SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production explores the ways we can help our environment by making changes to our consumption and production patterns. Two main ways that every one of us can help is by reducing waste and being thoughtful about where we buy our food and clothes. Simple changes can have a big impact on our society.
Our new reading list covers many of these topics and we hope the stories will inspire you to think about ways that you can help improve the community that you live in.
The SDG Book Club makes content available in the six official languages of the United Nations – please see our other pages for more recommendations in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish.
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The EIBF is one of the organisers of the SDG Book Club, working together with the UN, IPA, IFLA, IBBY and IAF. Find out more.